David wrote:It seems that there were more PoP-remakes in the past few years than before that.Why the (seemingly) sudden interest in remaking PoP?

There are probably so many things that play a role in this big puzzle that one could write a book about it.

Perhaps surprisingly, I think the game itself plays only a minor role. Relevant in this context are Mechner's code release on GitHub, the (re)launch of several up-to-date (modding) websites (inc. tools, docs, mods), PoP remakes being released for iOS and Android, nostalgia, maybe even the 2010 film.

But the big changes happened: 1) in society itself, and 2) in the gaming world.1) Computers are everywhere nowadays. Gaming and using the Internet are regular activities. Even programming is becoming increasingly common. Not just as a hobby, but also as something taught to students. There are calls to make it part of the standard curriculum. This also includes things like Code.org.2a) Game engines, SDKs and other tools have greatly simplified creating games. Many of these tools have become free to use.2b) Several things have brought back interest in Indie(-like) and old school games. Smartphones, for example. The growth of GOG.com (formerly Good Old Games). The whole Kickstarter craze contributed to the revival of old school games, remakes, spiritual successors, etc. Companies started looking into obtaining the rights to classic video games. Gamers found such games on Steam.

What I'm trying to say, I think PoP just happens to be a good candidate to (re)implement and the game got some attention because of remakes and such, but the real changes happened in society and the gaming world in general. More people are programming, more tools are easy to use and free, revival of Indie and old school games, etc.

David wrote:It seems that there were more PoP-remakes in the past few years than before that.Why the (seemingly) sudden interest in remaking PoP?

There are probably so many things that play a role in this big puzzle that one could write a book about it.

Speaking for myself, consciously at least, I can't really see significant influence of the aforementioned factors in my decision to write MININIM. As I see it, three main factors contributed to its development:

Personal desire and will power.

Programming skills.

Free software (GNU system and philosophy + Allegro)

This doesn't explain the supposedly generalized "sudden interest", though. I'm skeptical about the idea that there are discrete, concrete and objective reasons behind this. To be honest, I'm not sure there is a particular phenomenon of "sudden interest" at all. . I tend to think people see patterns, cause and effect where actually there is none. Of course, I might be wrong.

David wrote:Looks like Norbert and Oitofelix didn't notice that either.

I did notice it and some other things, but the premise remained (and remains) unchanged, so I simply focused on trying to answer the question.But it's definitely easy to forget about the Roku port, not being able to play it and all.It's such a niche. It's a billion years ago that I had a TV at home. There's not a single TV service that means anything to me.In 2014, European law forced the Netherlands to no longer allow its citizens to download pirated content.But we still have a private copying levy and in practice - as far as I know - nobody has ever been prosecuted for downloading pirated content.(For just private use without distributing.)I don't know enough about the Roku products to be sure, but it feels more like a prison to me than for instance Steam's DRM.Maybe because the Roku is custom hardware.

Norbert wrote:In 2014, European law forced the Netherlands to no longer allow its citizens to download pirated content.But we still have a private copying levy and in practice - as far as I know - nobody has ever been prosecuted for downloading pirated content.(For just private use without distributing.)